PS-OC Archive Workshops

No area of research better illustrates the constructive engagement of physics and cancer biology than the burgeoning field of cell mechanics. This workshop focused on the mechanical properties of healthy and cancer cells and the surrounding tissues. It covered topics such as changes in the elastic properties of cancer cells, the internal chemical and genetic changes triggered by the physical properties of the micro-environment (such as its hardness or surface adhesion) and the motility of cells, with special emphasis on metastasis.

Understanding cancer in the context of evolutionary biology, how neoplasms evolve within the host organism, the nonlinear feedback between cancer cells and stroma, and how cancer behaves as a complex adaptive system. Emphasis will be on the application of dynamical systems theory, game theory, systems biology and related fields of inquiry to cancer and its progression to malignancy.

The core focus of this workshop was the differential response of tumor cells to environmental stress. This central issue was approached by three groups: i) experts in the cancer field, ranging from cell biologists to bioinformaticists to pathologists, ii) biologists and bioengineers with expertise in cell differentiation in the context of stem cells and developmental biology, and iii) a cadre of biological modelers, with backgrounds in physics, engineering, and mathematics.

The conjecture that quantum mechanics plays a key role in life dates back to the 1940s, and Erwin Schrödinger’s famous book “What is Life?” However, decades later, most scientists still assume that classical ball and stick models suffice in the realm of molecular biology. Recently there have been claims that quantum effects are essential in at least two biological processes – photosynthesis and bird navigation.

he DNA in every human cell is about two metres long. Somehow it has to be packed into the tiny cell nucleus. Which presents nature with a problem: how can a thread so long be compacted without excessive tangling and knotting? Furthermore, in order for genes to be read, they need to be exposed to enzymes. That requires the DNA to be continually unraveled and re-packaged in an exquisitely precise and controlled manner.

Ninety per cent of cancer deaths occur when the neoplasm spreads beyond the primary tumor and invades other organs. This process, known as metastasis, normally signals a sharp deterioration in prognosis. The manner in which cancer cells migrate around the body remains an ill-understood process, but it is clearly a topic in which physical science is deeply involved.

Cancer is widespread among eukaryotes, and can be successfully tackled only by understanding its place in the story of life itself – especially the evolution of multi-cellularity. There is general agreement that the roots of cancer date back hundreds of millions of years.

Most cell biology is dominated by focusing on biochemistry, but electromagnetic effects also play a crucial role in regulating cell behavior. Cells maintain an electrical potential difference of a few hundred millivolts across their membranes by actively pumping charged particles. A similar potential difference is maintained across mitochondrial membranes

There is a growing realization of the importance of oxygen in understanding cancer, combined with a serious effort to trace the evolutionary roots of cancer back to the dawn of multicellularity, and perhaps even to the dawn of oxygenic metabolism. Many tumor cells are hypoxic, and use glycolysis in favor of oxy-phosphorylation to metabolise.